Your opportunity to transform FDU!

Calling all faculty, staff, administrators, and students! Every eight years, our institution goes through a self-study process in order to reaffirm our accreditation. We will be using this self-reflection process to assess our performance since the last self-study and to determine our plans for the future, so this is your opportunity to have your voice heard and help shape the future of Fairleigh Dickinson University. We hope to hear from every member of our campus community. Click below to learn how you can get involved. 

How can I help transform FDU?

Preliminary work for our current self-study began in Fall 2022, and work will continue until the completion of the process and delivery of a Self-Study Report in Fall 2024, culminating in a visit from our accrediting agency, The Middle States Commission on Higher Education, in Spring 2025.

The self-study process is about self-reflection, assessment, growth, and continuous improvement at all levels of the university. For this self-study cycle, we will examine, articulate, and assess how the learning experience at FDU is—as our tagline promises—personal, global, and transformational—and, at the same time, sustainable from a socioeconomic, environmental, and financial perspective. These are the lenses through which we will assess how well we have been doing and what we can do to improve. These are the priorities that will guide us on our journey of reflection, discovery, and transformation.  

What Is the “Self-Study”?

MSCHE logo“Self-study” is the name given to the process that colleges and universities go through to have their accreditation reaffirmed by an accrediting body. For FDU, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (or MSCHE, pronounced Mish-ee) is our accrediting body.

Accreditation is a requirement made by the Federal government of colleges and universities to assure that the educational enterprise of a college or university is sound and worth the investment of Federal financial assistance to its students. It also assures the public, parents, students and funders that our programs and services, and viability and value of the degrees we award have been audited by an independent third party (e.g., MSCHE).

The self-study process occurs every eight years and is an important opportunity for the university in its entirety to examine how well it has met its mission, vision, values and institutional priorities, as well as carried out its strategic plan. During the self-study process we will also address how well we meet MSCHE’s seven standards and 15 requirements of affiliation. Our accreditation was last affirmed in 2016. [Read that successful self-study document and the visiting team’s follow-up report.] The 2015-16 Self-Study also resulted in a number of forward-looking recommendations which have helped to drive positive change at FDU, and we expect that the recommendations produced by this self-study process will be even more impactful, as the work of the self-study is coinciding and dovetailing with Interim President Michael Avaltroni’s Transformational Plan, and eventually our new strategic plan. President Avaltroni has said that the self-study will help shape our plans for the future, and therefore he wants the entire campus community to weigh in on it.

Our Self-Study Report for 2024-25 is due by December 2024. In April 2025, a visiting team of members of other colleges and universities will visit FDU (both New Jersey and Vancouver campuses as well as a selection of off-campus sites) and provide their report on the quality of our self-study, the state of the University relative to MSCHE’s standards and requirements of affiliation, and recommendations for the future (and hopefully commendations for a job well done!).

More information regarding the plan for our 2024-25 Self-Study Report can be found in our Self-Study Design document, which provides a roadmap for the self-study process and final report.  

Who Is Leading the Self-Study Process?

A Self-Study Steering Committee has been established to guide our community on the self-study journey. The Self-Study Steering Committee consists of faculty, staff, and administrators from across all of our colleges, schools, services, and campuses. The Steering Committee has already started meeting regularly and will continue to meet and work to ensure that the self-study process is inclusive, transparent, and thorough, and that the final Self-Study Report fully responds to MSCHE requirements and articulates our shared vision for the future of FDU. 

Seven Working Groups, organized around institutional priorities and MSCHE standards, have been established. These Working Groups are led by members of the Steering Committee. The Working Groups are listed below. See details about each Working Group, including the leaders of the group and group charge, on the “Working Groups” page.